Ainslee wakes up to find a text message from Patricia asking her for updates on her MPH application process. To think that I actually considered Tulane when I was applying to addiction counseling programs, but I dismissed it back then because I believed it was overpriced. Tulane was a relative newcomer to the addiction counseling scene when I was an undergraduate but is now regarded as one of the most prestigious. Considering that I ruled out Brown because I deemed the online program too shallow, and Harvard didn't have what I wanted online, it's down to Columbia and Tulane. I'll just pick the cheaper of the two if I'm in at both. But I'm in at Tulane anyhow, Ainslee reflects while answering her boss back.
Deepak, on the other hand, tells her he is torn between community health and epi, but Patricia believes he would be better off asking people in both subfields to decide. Anyhow, it proves a minor distraction for Patricia as they continue to drive to Bakhmut after a stop in Niu-York. Upon arrival in Bakhmut:
"At Worlds, there are three mini-games: brain ring, svoya igra and erudit kvartet. There's only one of us for whom svoya igra makes sense to play: it's you, Patricia. However, there's one game we never played and it's erudit kvartet (erudite quartet)" Vira explains to the team.
As a Philologist, I was rarely put in to play erudit kvartet, I think I played, like, one game against the Yugra State Checkmates (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia) and a few other schools, but it was in an online tournament, Vira reflects on her past experiences of collegiate erudit kvartet for Mariupol State.
"An erudit kvartet game has three rounds: open, where you know the theme of all five-question blocks in advance, blind, where you don't know the theme of the blocks and, finally, the halfblind round where you only know the theme of the next block. There are four blocks per round, and players can only play one block per round" Vira continues.
As with Nats, not everyone will play each of the "minigames" at Worlds. While it goes without saying that Patricia will play svoya igra, they are on the fence about playing brain ring and erudit kvartet (erudite quartet).
"We might not get to play at Worlds again so I say that we should play all the minigames here" Bohdan pleads with his teammates.
"Oh and don't forget about voting for the location of the next ChGK Worlds! Please check out each potential location" Yakiv then harangues his teammates.
"The IAMG allows its members to vote on that? Is that new for the IAMG?" a puzzled Sergei asks his uncle.
"But personally, between Beijing and Damascus, I prefer Damascus because Syria doesn't use the ChGK Worlds for political gain" Patricia answers as she casts her vote for Damascus. "And then I would be asking who else wants to play erudit kvartet. Bohdan seems to be playing, so we need two more players to round out our roster for erudit kvartet"
"The Philologists were checkmated by Yugra State because of me in erudit kvartet, once" Vira then tells the group. "Bro, you're going to play in my stead"
"I don't want to play either! I feel like a baby compared to you" Yakiv complains, "in ChGK games I often come up with ideas but don't have the best erudition in the world"
"Fine, I'll play!" the sixth player reluctantly volunteers to play erudit kvartet.
I wonder if this would have been different with the sixth player replaced by Catria. She has definitely gotten smarter since she started recovering from alcoholism, but going from the LCM to the Worlds is like throwing her off the deep end, Patricia muses while she is entering the roster for erudit kvartet into the Worlds' minigame registration system.
Later that night, she reviews the venue for the minigames, which take place in Bakhmut #1. The school closest to the site of the main event, the grand hall of the National Ukraine War Museum. Presumably the game rooms would be much like playing quiz bowl or scholars bowl.
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The following day, Patricia realizes that, unlike Nats, playing svoya igra at Worlds, as happens in the morning, is a much rougher proposition, even though the size of the field in game rooms is 4 as opposed to 8. Here there isn't just a matter of 2 players dominating the entire field; there must be at least a dozen such players like her, or more.
The erudit kvartet field isn't that large for some reason, and they could get away with only 3 teams per game room. When erudit kvartet schedules are posted for the afternoon, the first game pits Hwasong, Kansas and some Latvian team, and takes place in a visual arts classroom. The North Koreans have a discussion about the upcoming game (freely translated from Korean):
"Here's our chance to defeat these arrogant Americans! Patricia is their main player to watch out for; she isn't called the Savior of Kansas ChGK for nothing!" the North Korean captain tries to encourage his players.
"Down with these capitalist fat pigs!" Another player shouts in Korean.
Then the first game begins, with the siren signaling the themes and the 60 second period to confer on who to send per theme.
"The themes for this round are going to be the pairs..." Yakiv then lists the other themes.
"There is no glory in erudit kvartet or in any other minigame, but this is not an excuse. I finished last in the svoya igra final, yet I have no regret precisely for this reason. Heads, I'll take the science-related theme, tails, I'll take the history one" Patricia retorts, while about to toss a coin and realizing one theme feels more science-heavy and another one feels more history-heavy.
"No need to toss a coin, I'll take the pairs, you'll take care of the science" the mysterious "sixth player" adds, while going in first.
The three players designated by their respective teams for the first 5-question block are treated to the following formality by the host once they are seated (the gameplay here is loosely translated from Russian) and ready to start playing erudit kvartet:
"This is game one of erudit kvartet at the 2042 ChGK Worlds. From Latvia, we have..." the moderator of that game tells the players in position before the first question gets asked. "There's academic team energy and there's debate team energy; for fifty points, what are these two types of energy concerned with?"
This question is a free question to which I'm certain the North Koreans won't be able to answer because the very concept of a debate team is foreign to the North Koreans, the sixth player reflects on the question, while the Latvian player buzzes in.
"Achievement?" an insecure Latvian player answers after buzzing in.
"Lozh" the moderator rules, leaving a few seconds to the other two players to answer before the question goes dead.
"Vsalmodeystviye s ideyami (engagement with ideas)" the Kansas player then answers.
"Verna (correct)" the moderator then reads the next question.
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After the open round, Kansas is in the lead, but the Latvians and North Koreans secretly hope that the question ordering would be in their favor in the blind round.
"We're just going into it on the same order as for the open round and pray that we can keep the Latvians and the North Koreans from getting the upper hand" Patricia tells her teammates while she is shaking in her standby seat.
"The North Koreans? We beat them so many times, International League, three times in a row, LCM, I can't see why we can't do so here!" Yakiv vehemently clamors while the tone heats up with the other 2, his nephew and the so-called sixth player.
What is it that makes my teammates squabble over Hwasong? What makes them so mad at the North Koreans? Or is it their strategy to catch the North Koreans off-balance? The team captain ruminates before the first block of 5 questions in the blind round starts.
"Enough!" She shouts at Yakiv, while pointing at him. "You will play the first block as punishment for this squabble!"
"Fine..." Yakiv sighs, while Patricia turns to the sixth player.
"You will play again in the halfblind round" Patricia then instructs the sixth player.
In erudit kvartet, players can only be changed between rounds. But this move proves a little problematic since Yakiv's lack of knowledge in the area of the first block essentially caused the first 4 questions to put the North Koreans on an equal footing with the Latvians. As tempting as it is for the other players to holler about "something something North Koreans", they refrain from doing so when the final question of the block rolls around.
Fast-forward to the end of the halfblind round and the North Koreans are now tied with Kansas. I was held back in the halfblind round until too late, and we paid the price for it. Hwasong was in the lead at the start of this block of questions, and I must do the utmost to prevent them from winning this erudit kvartet game against us! the psychiatric hospital administrator shakes in her seat, intently listening to the final question, worth 50 points. As freely translated from Russian:
"This procedure is undertaken in industrial non-destructive testing as well as in internal medicine" the moderator reads the final question in the packet.
If the Latvian player answers this correctly, then the tiebreaker between the North Koreans and us will kick in. Which will mean removing all the negs. If even that is tied, then it will come down to overtime, Patricia keeps ruminating while she wonders what could possibly fit both, causing her hand to shake and buzz in faster than she would like.
"Endoscopy?" she asks, in a tone of voice that could cast doubt on her answer.
"Verna" the moderator rules, fooled by her heavy Kansas accent that made him believe she was saying endoskopiya (endoscopy in Russian) rather than in English.
There are 6 preliminary games being played total, of which the best 10 then advance to the semifinals. First by win-loss record and then by total points scored. And the best 2 of each semifinal advance to the final.
These North Koreans then start cursing the Kansas State Team... which, after the Kansas State Team qualified for the Worlds, was often, in the ChGK circuit, simply called Kansas.
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When the final standings and playoff brackets are released for erudit kvartet, within a 5-minute break, the Hwasong players are doubly disappointed. However, the Kansas players don't understand anything since none of them speak Korean, and Hwasong rants in Korean (of which the following is a loose translation):
"We finished eleventh, and it was because we lost to these God-forsaken Americans in game one!" a DPRK player rants, with maybe one erudit kvartet semifinalist understanding anything about it.
"They get to play in the semifinal because they won over us!" another Hwasong player complains in open air.
The main countries remaining on our watch list: we're going to play Syria in the semis, China is in the opposite side of the bracket, Sergei muses while reviewing the semifinal field. At the same time, the US appear to be a stagnant ChGK nation.
"Syria? They defeated the traditional Middle Eastern intellectual games powers, Turkey and Israel, to get here..." Patricia sighs.
"Don't underestimate anyone here" Sergei warns his teammates.
It dawned upon so many at Worlds that Syria, even more so than North Korea, is a dark horse that few predicted would be in position to do well in the main event.
"While we only need to be first or second in this game, we will need to fight tooth and nail to do so. Understood?" Bohdan asks his teammates, before the game begins.
Going into the semifinal, which is a very rough game and not simply because it's played with 5 teams as opposed to 3, they know no one has any room for error. And the semifinal game itself seem to be very nerve-wracking, with the scoreboard going into constant flux.
At one point, an Uzbek team was in the lead, at another Kansas was in the lead, but Russian and Ukrainian television crews head into the game room for the final question in the blind round.
By the time the final question rolls around, Kansas is then tied for second place with Al-Azhar, a.k.a. Syria.
Also, erudit kvartet rounds are not played in the same order from a game to another, but blind and halfblind ended games far more often than the open round at ChGK Worlds.
With the world watching live, mostly through either Ukrinform (of which UATV is its English-language subsidiary) or VGTRK, the last question is read. Quickly, in Bohdan's mind, he starts wondering whether their luck has run out... There has been, like, two questions on medicine all day in erudit kvartet, and it has to fall on me! Patricia answered the first medical question correctly, if only we didn't make Patricia go in the previous block! If the Syrians answer this correctly, we're done! He starts sweating as he tries to process the question. This sickness is characterized by... what?
He snaps out of it when a team not tied for second buzzes in, but keeps sweating as the player who buzzed in, a Russian player, presses on the buzzer like a syringe.
"Artrit (Arthritis)" the Russian player answers, knowing his team is not going to advance.
"Lozh" the moderator rules, and the other players have a few more seconds to answer.
This question sounds like a disease of the joints, but I'm not sure I know any other diseases of the joints. I became a realtor because I couldn't stomach going back to school to fill in the gaps local employers pointed out to practice my old profession, civil engineering! So realty didn't take nearly as long to study, Bohdan keeps stressing over for a few seconds, when, once again, someone else buzzes in. This time around, the Syrian player did it, causing Bohdan to collapse.
"Bursit (Bursitis)" the Syrian player answers in the nick of time.
"Verna!" The moderator rules, shutting out Kansas from the final.
In the heat of this tournament, Bohdan runs straight to his teammates, distraught, after this game ends. After this tight defeat on a medical question. There were over 600 questions for this tournament, and Syria makes it to the erudit kvartet final over a 50-point medical question. When he faces his teammates:
"I caused us to lose this semifinal game and because of me, Syria is at the final of the erudit kvartet tournament!" Bohdan shouts as if he was panicking.
"Vot der'mo! (Oh shit!) The good news is China is also eliminated in erudit kvartet" Patricia then announces to her teammates.
"What was the question about?" Sergei asks.
"It was about a specific kind of disease of the joints" Bohdan answers his teammate, before they enter the school's auditorium for the erudite kvartet final.
I swear Patricia could have been a physician. Speaking of which, after looking at the Syrian roster, the guy who played against Bohdan is a physician. One is a civil engineer, one is a philologist, and these are those players whose professions we know publicly, Vira brings herself to look up the Syrian players' publicly available profiles. Now I understand why erudit kvartet isn't a thing in the US: games are three times longer than svoya igra.
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When everything is said and done, their first day at ChGK Worlds gives them a taste of the strength of the field, who they need to watch out for, based on how they perform in the minigames. And, of course, in brain ring, where, rather than there being 2 playoff rounds, there are 4 of these, and Kansas was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Before they get to their hotel rooms:
"Tomorrow, we will honor the sacrifices made by the family of three of the players present to even be alive..." Patricia tries to encourage her teammates before going to sleep.
Even though I used their full names to make everything happen, we never referred to ourselves by our full names among us, or even mentioned our last names at all, Patricia's mind seems to be derailing as she attempts to remember their last names. And the sixth player's name, too, which she never seems able to recall even though she clearly has the ability to do so. After all, she played all 3 mini-games with such intensity that she had not much energy remaining.
"The Kostenkos" Yakiv tells the group. "But you're right: by playing tomorrow we will honor our family's sacrifices to get us to safety, away from Mariupol"
"I have a confession to make. I am getting too old to continue playing ChGK so tomorrow will be my last tournament" the sixth player, who's much older than the others, announces in a soft voice.
Finally, the sixth player's name comes back tome! Kirill. He was more reserved than anyone else, but he seemed to know a lot about sports and entertainment history, Patricia has a flash, while also recalling the implications of having to replace him for the next season.